The upcoming generation of phones

Before we dive into the detail, here are some of the anticipated upcoming handsets for 2018:

Nokia 9

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ Pro

HTC U12

Huawei P20

LG G7

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

Apple iPhone 9

New BlackBerry

Pocket-lint

Nokia 9

That's right, Nokia's next smartphone is rumoured to be called the Nokia 9 and it's said to be more premium than last year's Nokia 8. That might see the display adopt an 18:9 aspect, see the introduction of waterproofing and keep that metal body.

Nokia is also sure to keep the Zeiss partnership going and it will probably offer the bothie function of the Nokia 8 - although there's talk of it having wide-angle and zoom functions on the rear cameras.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

Smartphone giants never sleep and it wasn't long after the launch of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ (pictured) that we started to hear about Samsung's future plans. The Samsung Galaxy S9 is thought to be coming in two sizes once again and sticking with the Infinity Display.

Having seen the debut of Samsung's dual camera on the Note 8, we're also expecting to see these zoom skills coming to the S9+ too, while the smaller S9 sticks to a single camera.

Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ Pro

Sony churns phones more often than we have hot meals. Having announced the Xperia XZ1, XZ1 Compact and XA1, new rumours then appeared suggesting that Sony wants to change its smartphone design.

That's big news, because we've essentially had the same OmniBalance design in Sony Xperia phones since the Xperia Z.

Now there's talk of what we're calling the Xperia XZ2. A render appeared that shows no bezel, as well as a spec sheet that details a 5.48-inch display with Full HD resolution, a Snapdragon 845 and twin rear 12-megapixel cameras, with a 15-megapixel camera on the front. There will also be a XZ Pro, we're hearing, a replacemet to the Premium line of handsets.

Sony Mobile does like to launch at Mobile World Congress, so we're expecting a late-February launch.

LG G7

LG changed direction on the LG V30 slightly, shifting the messaging from "great for videographers" to "great for everyone" - and it is, it's a great flagship smartphone.

Rumours about the G7 have swung back and forth, suggesting that LG is going to use a different brand for the G series and elsewhere suggesting that it's going to launch slightly later in the year than you might expect.

What the device will actually offer remains something of a mystery at the moment. The LG G6 aged very quickly and we suspect LG will want to address this two flagship situation it finds itself in.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

The Note 8 has barely gone on sale, but Samsung is already talking about the Note 9. In an interview, the development team confirmed that they'd moved straight into planning for the next Note model, including working on enhancing notable features, like the S Pen.

So there's no firm details at the moment, but we'd expect Samsung to be unveiling the Galaxy Note 9 in late August 2018, with more enhanced S Pen features.

HTC U12

HTC has added the HTC U11+ to its 2018 line-up, shifting to an 18:9 display and boosting a number of areas of this phone. It comes at a strange time, and feels like the foundation for the 2018 flagship. We wouldn't be surprised to see a similar device on new hardware with a couple of additional features launching in April 2018.

Rumours are light on the ground at the moment (including the name), but HTC has come forward and said that it will be making a return to dual cameras in 2018. HTC was the first to put two cameras on the back of its phone in the HTC One M8, and we can't help feeling this is a bid to compete on the spec sheet with rivals like LG and Huawei.

Huawei P20

Huawei has been moving things up a step and seems to be making gains globally in its smartphone offering.

Little has been said about this future flagship phone, but what has been said pertains to a 3D face scanning feature which might rival the iPhone X's Face ID. Otherwise rumours are light on the ground, but with the P10 being criticised for having a really smeary display, there are some easy fixes to be made.

One thing that has surfaced is Huawei's plans to skip forward a few numbers and release the P20 next. We're expecting a launch to take place in March.

Apple iPhone 9 and/or iPhone XI, iPhone X2

The iPhone X is a celebration of 10-years of iPhone. It's also super-premium and expansive. But Apple has confirmed that this phone lays the foundations for the next 10 years of the iPhone and we suspect that the 2018 iPhone update will take a lot from the iPhone X.

There's currently no knowing what Apple will call the new iPhone, but we suspect it will move from stainless steel back to aluminium to bring the price down, while retaining that 19:9 display and using Face ID rather than Touch ID in a home button. We'd expect Apple to offer a couple of sizes in this design, making some differentiation between the two as it does with the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus currently. At the moment, however, there's no evidence to say exactly what might happen.

We can expect the iPhone 9 to launch in October 2018 but there may also be an iPhone SE2, too.